1. Field of the Disclosure
This invention relates in general to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus employing a method and apparatus for saving on toner cost and maximizing productivity.
2. Description of Related Art
In office products (tandem architectures) the color control requires the rendering of process control patches which result in a tradeoff between the benefits of improved color regulation against the costs incurred by toner usage, lost productivity, and component wear. In addition, color registration adjustments also come with the costs of lost productivity and toner usage.
Typically, in office products, the xerographic controls uses a set of toned patches that are, relative to registration patches, large in size. This is so since process controls is concerned with measuring the average density of a patch where registration is concerned with measuring the location of the patch edge only. Furthermore, in many products the same optical sensor is used to sense both controls and registration patches. The signal processing is done by different systems, typically in hardware for the high speed requirement of registration and in software for the purpose of color control. Sampling rates may be different, though not necessarily different. Finally, the number of patches required for registration is usually larger than that required for process controls.
The toner usage is a function of the number of sampling events, number of patches and the average developed mass per unit area. Decreasing anyone of these factors will result in a toner savings.
The total toner usage per unit time is directly related to toner consumption cost. Also, there is cost due to lost productivity since dead cycling is often required to render and measure registration and process controls patches.
Thus, there is a long felt need to reduce lost productivity and toner consumption during the color registration and color control functions.